Objective verification of Assamese consonants

Abstract

The aim of the study is to experimentally verify the characteristics of Assamese consonants. All the previous work has been done subjectively. This study is the first attempt to objectively verify the characteristics of Assamese consonants. There are eight vowels, two semivowels and twenty one consonants in standard colloquial Assamese. Semivowels are excluded in this study. The study of place and manner of articulation is based on the Electropalatography system and acoustic data of the phoneme. Phonation process is determined by Electroglottograph. The study reveals that in Assamese there are contrasts in three distinct places of articulation: the lips, the alveolar ridge and the velum. It is also observed that alveolar plosives in context with vowel /u/ and /a/ show signature of retroflection.